Darker than Black: Supernova
by BlackScleraCyanIris
Summary: Three weeks after the events of Gemini of the Meteor, a Contractor wakes up inside of Hell's Gate with no memory of how or when she got there. Now she must find a way out of Hell's Gate without getting captured by the CIA. Protagonist is an original character.
1. A Blue Star Over Hell's Sky-Part 1

**This fanfic is called Darker than Black: Supernova. It takes place after the events of Gemini of the Meteor, roughly three weeks after. It begins with a contractor who wakes up inside Hell's Gate with no recollection of how or when she got there. The CIA, who is still in control of PANDORA and Tokyo, quickly takes notice of her and gives chase.**

**The contractor's name is Lan (Chinese for blue.)**

**This will be my second fanfic I've written that isn't about Mass Effect. I just hope that it's better received than my last attempt.**

**I won't reveal what Lan's powers are until later in the chapter, but it shouldn't be too tough for you to figure out.**

**Hope you enjoy it.**

A great flash of blinding white light manifested before her, and then…

The contractor snapped her eyes open, gasping as she did so, followed by several heavy breaths. Her eyes opened to a familiar night sky, filled with thousands of false stars, each representing the life of a contractor.

She was lying on her back, arms and legs spread out. She was staring at a bright blue star directly over her. Her mind quickly analyzed the other pinpoints of light surrounding the blue one, and was able to determine what part of the sky she was looking at.

The blue star directly above her was her star, the star that represented her life. She was a contractor, and after staring at the star above, she quickly judged that she was not dead. This surprised her, after that great flash that had just manifested. She had not expected the night to be so calm afterward, either.

For several long moments, all she could focus on was her blue star above her. She quickly remembered her star's Messier code.

"XO-389," she mumbled.

She slowly flexed the muscles in her arms, which quickly returned feeling to the upper limbs. She did the same with her legs.

She was relieved that her limbs were intact. As she felt the ground beneath her, she quickly realized that the ground was hard. She was tired, and having a hard time moving her body. Slowly, she lifted her right hand and placed it in front of her, and pulled her glove off with her teeth. She lowered her hand back to the ground and felt it. She felt…

_Concrete?_

Her surprised caused her to jolt up into a sitting position. She instantly regretted it, as the sudden movement caused a moment of dizziness. She grabbed her head instantly.

"Concrete," she mumbled, "how is there concrete in the middle of the jun…?"

Another realization hit her: she could talk.

"I…I can talk? Has my payment been complete already?"

She let go of her head looked around her. It was indeed concrete she was sitting on. As she looked around her, she quickly realized that she was on top of a building. Beyond the building's edge, she could see faint lights peering over what appeared to be a solid wall, which also had lights on it.

_What the…?_

She slowly got to her feet. Surprisingly, she felt fine.

Lan was a contractor, employed by the Syndicate. She was a Japanese woman, roughly five feet and nine inches tall, sporting a tight athletic physique. She had long black hair tied up in a ponytail, and unusually deep blue eyes.

Her eye color was one reason her superiors gave her the codename Lan, which was Chinese for blue. The other reason was the color of XO-389, the star that her life was bound to.

Lan calmly walked to the building's edge, and saw a city beneath her, lit only by the streetlights below. An ominous green fog hovered above the ground.

It did not take her long to figure out where she was. A familiar feeling of restlessness was gripping at her. There was only one place where she felt that sense of uneasiness: Heaven's Gate.

She was not at Heaven's Gate, however, as it was in Brazil, surrounded by jungle. There was only one other place she could be.

"Hell's Gate," she whispered.

Her mind was in an utter state of confusion. The last thing she remembered was being at Heaven's Gate, being enveloped by a bright white light.

"How did I get here?"

She also found the wall strange. The last time she heard about it, the wall was still in an early stage of construction.

_How did they finish it so quickly?_

An ominous presentiment gripped her as she could feel something, a presence of some kind. Whatever it was, she could feel that it was not far. It was somewhere in the gate with her.

She was getting more and more restless. She quickly forced herself to calm down and focus. She looked up and scanned the sky, looking for the stars of her comrades.

During the fighting at Heaven's Gate, Lan took the time to memorize the names of her comrades' stars, as well as their locations in the sky. Whenever she was separated from them, she would keep an eye on their stars to see if they were still alive.

She was dismayed when she saw that UB-001 was gone.

"Amber," Lan whispered. She quickly turned her attention to another area of the sky.

"Havoc," she whispered again. Havoc's star was gone as well.

She turned her gaze to another area, slower this time. She was relieved to find that the star she was looking for was still shining.

"BK-201," she sighed, "Bai."

She couldn't find out whether or not Hei, Bai's brother, was alive or not. Hei was not a contractor, and therefore, had no star.

Lan did a quick check-up on herself. She was still wearing the dark blue combat suit she wore at Heaven's Gate. She was still carrying her Berretta model 92 on her right hip, and her combat knife on her left.

What she did not have were the powers she had obtained from her foes. All she had was her original power.

She pulled out her pistol and ejected the magazine. It had four rounds left. Luckily, she still had several fresh clips in the left pocket of her combat vest.

She replaced the pistol in its holster and walked to the rooftop's door.

The building she was on top of was forty stories high. She opened the rooftop door and began the long descent down the stairs.

"Captain Samuels," Jack Chambers called, "I think that you'll want to see this."

Captain Ben Samuels walked up to the tech's monitoring station. Chambers was one of several techs controlling robotic scouts remotely, monitoring the interior of Hell's Gate. After the meeting of Izanagi and Izunami several weeks ago, something had appeared in the gate and had been living in it. So far, it has killed over thirty people. It has been deemed to dangerous to send in humans into the gate, as anyone who got to close to the being inside was instantly killed. In response, the CIA had increased robotic expeditions into the gate.

Samuels looked at the monitor screen of the probe that Chambers was driving. He was surprised to see a woman walking the streets within the gate.

"Who the hell is that," Samuels asked.

"Unknown, sir," Chambers replied, "There is no manned expedition scheduled. I also ran a scan on her face, and she is not stationed here. She's no scientist, nor is she one of ours."

Samuels could tell that the woman was no scientist simply by the way she was dressed, as well as by gun strapped to her hip.

"How the hell did she get in there?"

"Also unknown, Captain."

"We have every entrance into the gate heavily guarded," Samuels snapped, "there's no way she could get in there."

"I don't know what to say," Chambers replied, "but she is there."

Samuels leaned in to get a good look at the woman. He couldn't deny that she was very attractive, but she had a look on her face that suggested that she had seen her fair share of combat.

"Judging by what she's wearing," Samuels observed, "She's not here for a social visit. Are you tracking her location, Chambers?"

"Yes sir. She's in Ueno right now, moving north."

"Good. Keep tracking her. I'm sending in a containment team."

"Understood, Captain," Chambers said.

Lan walked calmly through the streets of Tokyo. All around her, there were many strange things. Letters on signs were jumbled and flipped, large craters were scattered about the city. Lan even spotted a car impaled on a lamppost, with no obvious sign of how it got there.

_Same crap, different place._

Lan had a bad feeling about the presence in the gate, so she decided to walk in the direction opposite of it.

_I hope that that wall has a door on it somewhere._

For over half an hour, Lan calmly walked north toward the wall. There were several instances when she thought she spotted a glint. She heard movement as well.

_Great. I'm being monitored._

She kept her cool, deciding that there was nothing she could do about that. Whoever was operating those cameras already knew she was there.

A half an hour of thinking had not helped Lan figure out what had happened. All she could remember doing was running deep into Heaven's Gate, looking for the rest of her team. Shortly after she found them, the bright flash occurred, and then she woke up in Hell's Gate.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard what sounded like approaching vehicles. They were approaching from the North, the direction she was walking. She quickly pulled out her pistol and ran into a nearby alleyway. Luckily, the alley was open at both ends. While her gun's current clip only had four rounds left, she did not like to replace clips until she expended the previous one.

As the vehicles drew closer, their engines grew louder. Lan closed her eyes and focused on the sounds made by each vehicle's engine.

_Three of them._

Lan peaked from around the corner of the alley when she heard the vehicles skid to a halt just a few meters away. She saw three armored personnel carriers. The doors of the APCs opened, and over a dozen soldiers dressed in brownish-green body armor stormed out of each APC.

_Thirty-six soldiers in all. _

She noticed the flag emblem on their armor.

_Americans? Damn._

A voice sounded from one of the soldiers after they spread out and took cover.

"Attention, intruder. You are trespassing in a restricted area. This place is now under the authority of the CIA."

_Dammit! CIA! I hate these guys._

"We know that you are armed," the voice continued, "drop your weapons and surrender. We are authorized to use deadly force if you do not comply!"

Lan carefully analyzed her surroundings. She had heard several of the soldiers run around the building earlier. They were waiting for her on the other side of the alleyway. She looked to the other side of the street. There was a building there that she could probably scale with the help of her anchor wire that was attached to her left wrist.

It did not look good for her though. In all probability, bullets would cut down Lan before she reached the building.

As a contractor, Lan always thought in a rational manner, not letting her emotions rule her. While she still had emotions, she seldom made decisions based on them, and always sought the logical solution. The logical solution was to surrender, and survive. Any good contractor would do so.

Which is why Lan was more than a little surprised with herself after she did what she did.

Lan immediately charged out of the alley towards the other side of the street, expending the remaining four rounds of her pistol as she did so. She took down four soldiers with one bullet to the face for each.

This maneuver had taken them by surprise and they were scrambling to bring their weapons to bear. By the time they were able to aim their submachine guns at Lan, she was already on the opposite sidewalk. By then, she had holstered her pistol and shot out her anchor wire and latched on to a lamppost. As the American soldiers opened fire, she had commanded the wire to retract, which lifted her of off the ground. She swung to the low building and caught the edge of it with her right hand, pulling the wire back as she did so.

She immediately pulled herself up as the soldiers opened fire. She took off in a run toward the other side of the building and jumped off, rolling as she landed. She sprang to her feet and took off down another alleyway, heading westward.

Sargent Harris was more than a little shocked by what had happened. The target had taken down four of his men with perfectly aimed shots to their faces while running. On top of that, she was faster than he had ever seen.

"All units," Harris said, "after her! Back to the vehicles!"

As everyone got into his or her APCs, Harris consulted the nearest probe. She had already run two blocks to the west.

_Damn, she's fast! We'll never catch her at this rate._

Harris quickly spoke into his radio.

"Captain Samuels. This is Sargent Harris sir. The target got past us. We've taken four fatalities."

"Four fatalities," Samuels shouted over the radio, "Well then go after her!"

"We're already underway," Harris said, "but she's incredibly fast, and she's already got a head start. I'm not sure we'll be able to catch up."

"Catch her, Sargent," Samuels shouted again, "If she's that difficult, then I'll send you some support!"

Harris checked on another probe. "She's heading west. She's already five blocks from us. I think we need that support now!"

"Alright then," Samuels said, "I'm sending in a contractor. He will intercept her from the west end. While he's fighting her, that should give you some time to catch up."

"Understood, sir," Harris said.

Harris didn't care for contractors, but he had to admit, they had their uses.

Lan stopped at a vacant street corner to catch her breath. She had put some distance between herself and the Americans.

_I can't believe that I did that._

Lan was shocked with herself at her actions. What she did was not decided based on the rational thinking of a contractor, but rather over a gut feeling. She had no idea what was going on around her, and she had never trusted the Americans. If they were in control of Hell's Gate, then something was wrong.

Lan turned to the direction of a whirring sound, and spotted a robotic probe, roughly the size of a bicycle. She drew her gun and ejected the spent clip, and popped in a fresh one. She then fired a round clean through the probe's camera lens.

She holstered the pistol and took off running again.

As she ran west, she spotted several other probes. She drew her Berretta and shot each of their cameras.

She managed to run a full ten blocks when she stopped outside of a building that used to be a restaurant. She needed to catch her breath again. She leaned down to put her hands on her knees.

She froze when she saw a green dot on the ground. Once it began crawling up her leg, she realized that it was a laser pointer. She immediately jumped out of the way as a searing heat shot past her and punched a good-sized hole into the side of a car.

_A contractor?_

She spotted the laser again, and was able to find its point of origin. She spotted a man standing behind a car, holding the laser pointer. As the laser reached Lan's chest, a red light appeared in the pupils of the contractor's eyes, and the familiar blue glow of synchrotron radiation surrounded him.

Lan immediately jumped out of the way again as a searing hot laser pulse fired from the laser pointer. She quickly ran behind the car that was blasted by the first shot.

_Definitely a Contractor. This might actually be a good thing._

Lan peaked through the car's windows. The contractor had moved, and it took her a moment to spot him. She was able to find him when she heard the crack of a whip, followed by an audible groan.

_I guess that that is his payment. I've paid worse than that._

Lan kept her pistol in its holster, deciding that she didn't want to kill this Contractor.

_I just hope that my power still works._

The Contractor had apparently noticed where she had run off to, as he aimed the laser at the car she was hiding behind. An instant before he fired the laser pulse, Lan bolted from behind the trashed car, and began turning to run toward the Contractor.

"Got you," the Contractor said as he readjusted his aim. As he fired the laser bolt again, Lan crouched and jumped high over the Contractors head, landing behind him.

"What the…" the Contractor yelled as he tried to bring the pointer around again. Before he could aim, Lan grabbed his arm and pointed the laser pointer skyward. She kneed his groin, which made it easy for her to pin him on his back.

The Contractor was a middle-aged man; clearly American, judging by the way he talked. He had a receding line of grey hair.

Lan noticed that he had a cat-o-nine tails whip tied to his belt. Lan guessed that the whips were what he used to make his payment.

Lan pinned his arms to the ground and brought her face close to his. He stopped struggling as she stared deep into his eyes.

Lan momentarily closed her eyes. When she snapped them open, they were glowing red, and an aura of synchrotron radiation surrounded her.

Up in the sky, as Lan activated her power, XO-389 quickly grew in intensity. At the same time, the small red star of the Contractor pinned beneath her glowed as well. After several seconds, the smaller red star flashed brightly like an exploding sun, and then winked out of existence.

The second that the smaller star faded; XO-389 grew even brighter, flashing a bright red, and then returned to its usual blue. As Lan quelled her power, her star settled down.

XO-389 was larger and brighter than it was before Lan used her ability, glowing intensely in the false sky.

Kanami Ishizaki groaned in frustration as her ringing cell phone interrupted her sleep. She grabbed the phone from the nightstand and looked at the caller ID.

"Damn it!"

Kanami answered the phone. "This had better be good, Suzuki!"

Kanami had quit her job at the observatory, so it was unexpected to be getting a call from one of her old co-workers.

"Boss," Suzuki said, clearly panicked, "I don't think that it's good at all! Look outside!"

Kanami reluctantly pulled herself out of bed and walked to her bedroom window.

She opened the curtain and spotted a pair of stars glowing brightly, a blue one, and a smaller red one. She was taken aback when the smaller one flashed brightly and then vanished while the bigger one flashed red as the smaller one faded.

"Oh no," she said, "not again!"

Kanami put her phone up to her ear again, and Suzuki's panicked voice sounded in her ear.

"Is that what I think it is, ma'am?"

Kanami had seen that blue star in action before, the last time being almost seven years ago.

"I'm afraid so," Kanami said, "the Supernova is back."

As Lan pulled her face away from the male Contractor's, she punched him in the face and knocked him out cold.

_Good. Still works._

Now that Lan had used her ability, she would have to be the price for it. For the next hour, she would be physically incapable of speaking.

Lan picked up the Contractor's laser pointer and put it in her belt.

_Now to finish his payment._

Since the laser Contractor did not get a chance to make his next payment before Lan pinned him, she would have to make it for him.

Lan calmly pulled off her vest and unzipped the back of her suit, exposing her back. She pulled the whips from the Contractor's belt, and mentally braced herself.

She whipped her back with them as hard as she could. Because the contractor fired the laser twice, Lan whipped her back only two times.

Lan carefully closed her suit and put her vest back on. She carefully got up, ignoring the pain in her back.

_I've paid worse prices than this._

Lan froze as she heard the APC's approaching again.

_Here we go._

Lan pulled the laser pointer from the patch on her belt and set the whips on the ground beside her feet.

The three APCs quickly rounded a corner and headed for her.

Lan aimed the pointer at the APCs and pressed the button.

Lan's eyes glowed again as a powerful pulse of laser fire shot from the pointer and instantly struck the leading APC, causing it to explode. Lan fired two more pulses, one at each of the remaining APCs. Both vehicles went up in fiery explosions.

Lan put the laser back in her pouch and picked up the whips. As quick as she could, she repeated the laser Contractor's payment, this time whipping her back thrice. She carefully put her suit back together.

_Shake it off, Lan!_

The Contractor XO-389 tied the whips to her belt and immediately began running again. She ran past the smoldering wreckage of the APC's and the cooking bodies of the soldiers inside them, continuing her journey North.

**There you have it. And yes, in this story, Lan was a member of Hei's team in South America.**

**As you can tell, Lan's ability allows her to take the powers of other Contractors. The downside to this is that she has to pay the prices for those powers as well.**

**The payment for Lan's primary ability is that she can't speak for a while.**


	2. A Blue Star Over Hell's Sky-Part 2

**This next chapter is an action-packed one, focusing on Lan's struggle to get out of the gate.**

"Damn it," Samuels exclaimed, "So she's a Contractor!"

"Yes sir," Chambers said, "and it appears that she is able to steal the powers of other…"

"I could see that for myself, thanks!"

Samuels thought for a moment, scratching the stubble on his chin.

"Send in another three squads," Samuels said to a nearby soldier, "the order is shoot to kill. Also, send in Thurman, Briggs, and Stone! Tell them to keep their distance!"

"Yes, sir," The soldier said as he saluted. He quickly sprinted out of the room.

Samuels pulled out his cell phone and called the astronomics division, which was located outside of the wall.

"Suzuki," he shouted when the astronimics chief picked up, "A Contractor just used her powers. I need an ID on her star!"

"We noticed it," Suzuki replied, "The star was XO-389."

"Do we have any data on her?"

Samuels nearly dropped the phone when Suzuki told him what they knew of Contractor XO-389.

Lan continued to run through the gate, ignoring the throbbing pain on her back. After another twenty minutes of running, she found herself in the Arakawa ward. She was getting very close to the wall.

_Almost there!_

Lan slid to a halt when she heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. She focused on the sound of its engine. It was not nearly as loud as the bulky APCs she had encountered before. Its volume was increasing rapidly as it drew closer, suggesting that the vehicle was much faster than the APCs as well.

_Is that…a motorcycle?_

Lan's question was answered when a black motorcycle rounded the corner and turned to face her. She was surprised to see that no one was riding it.

As the motorcycle began accelerating toward her, she shot her wire from the launcher on her left arm. The wire wrapped itself around a tall lamppost. As the wire retracted, Lan was pulled off of the ground, barely dodging the motorcycle that charged through where she stood. She immediately twirled her body around to face the seemingly possessed vehicle, drawing her pistol as she did so, taking carful aim.

As the cycle skidded to a stop, Lan fired one shot. The bullet struck the cycle's gas tank, causing it to explode instantly.

As Lan began to lower herself back to the ground, a small, dense ball of metal flew through the air and shot through her wire. Lan was quick, as she quickly oriented herself to land on her feet.

She turned to see what had broken her wire. The dense sphere was roughly the size of a baseball, and was zooming through the air at high speed.

Once Lan spotted it, the ball suddenly decelerated, and rapidly picked up speed again as it flew toward her head. She dodged out of the way. Lan aimed her pistol as the ball stopped again and fired one more shot, knocking the temperamental black sphere to the ground.

Before Lan could register what had happened, gunfire sounded from above her. She instantly reacted by breaking into a run forward. As the gunfire stopped, she turned to see a man in American body armor floating in the air, descending onto a rooftop. He was armed with a submachine gun.

_Another gravity manipulator? Great!_

So far, Lan guessed that there were three Contractors around her somewhere. She could see one of them, but the other two were hidden from view.

Lan quickly observed the gravity Contractor on the roof. She noticed that he was chewing gum. He blew a large bubble and popped it.

_So that's his payment._

Lan suddenly thought of an idea.

As the Contractor opened fire on Lan again, she charged toward the building that the gravity user was standing on. Once she got close enough, Lan launched the wire attached to her belt. The wire wrapped itself around the gun. Lan gripped the wire with both hands and pulled hard, yanking the SMG from her foe's grasp.

As Lan pulled the gun down, she heard a barely audible sound behind her. She turned to see that the little ball was up in the air again. She picked the SMG off of the ground and broke into another run. Lan quickly ducked as the ball zoomed above her head, crashing through a wall.

Lan jumped onto a car as the ball crashed through another wall, missing her again. When she faced the sphere, she found that it was hovering in place.

Suddenly, the engine of the car beneath Lan roared to life. She jumped off of it just before it accelerated forward. The sphere lunged at her again. She pulled back just in time, the sphere crashing into the concrete just in front of her.

The gravity user above began firing a pistol down at her. One bullet hit her shoulder, blocked by the bullet resistant material. The force of the blow knocked her off balance.

As Lan fell to her knees, she quickly lifted the SMG with her left hand and fired a two-round burst. One bullet struck the Contractor's pistol, knocking it from his hand. The other bullet struck the American agent's chest armor, knocking him onto his back.

As the ball lifted itself out of the concrete, Lan ran to the window of the building that the gravity Contractor had landed on, and jumped through the glass.

The building was roughly two stories tall.

Once Lan entered the building, she got down on her stomach. The ball crashed through another window and into a wall. The ball pulled itself out of the wall and crashed itself into the floor. It pulled itself up again, and slowly moved to another area. It crashed into the floor again two meters from her location.

The ball was crashing in random spots on the floor, searching for Lan.

_Just like I thought. The Contractor controlling that thing can't see me._

While the ball continued to break the floor apart, Lan calmly crawled in the opposite direction toward the stairs. She calmly got to her feet and pulled her pistol out. She checked the magazine, and then put it back in.

_Ten rounds left. _

Lan crouched as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. She could hear the ball breaking the first floor apart.

Lan pulled herself from her crouch and held her pistol at the ready. She listened carefully. She could hear footsteps on the upper floor. She closed her eyes and focused on the footsteps above, trying to find the Contractor's exact location.

The instant that the Contractor was directly above her, Lan aimed her pistol upward and fired one shot. The bullet tore through the floor. An audible scream sounded above her.

"OW!"

The contractor fell onto the floor above her.

The metal ball crashed through the floor mere millimeters from Lan's body. Apparently, the Contractor controlling it saw the flash of her gun in the dark windows. Lan quickly charged to the next set of stairs that led to the third floor.

Lan ran up the stairs and quickly located the Contractor. He was sitting up, grasping his bleeding right foot. The instant the Contractor spotted Lan, she charged toward him.

The gravity user tried to reach for his pistol, but Lan was already on top of him. She pinned him to the ground and looked straight into his eyes.

"What are you doing," the Contractor beneath her screamed.

Lan momentarily closed her eyes, and opened them again. Her eyes glowed a fierce red as she extracted his ability from him.

Stone's star pulsed fiercely as he directed his steel ball all around the building on the other side of the street. He saw the flash of a gunshot on the second floor and was commanding it to fly around the second floor, hoping to hit the target Contractor.

Stone's concentration was broken when Briggs called out to him. Stone looked to his partner, who was pointing up at the sky. Stone looked up and saw a pair of stars glowing intensely.

One star was yellow. It wasn't long before the smaller yellow star gave one final flash and vanished. The larger blue star quickly flashed yellow, and then calmed down. The blue star was even brighter than it was before.

"She got Thurman," Stone exclaimed.

"So that's what the Captain was talking about," Briggs said.

Stone pulled out a tiny bottle of eye drops and carefully placed a drop of liquid into each eye. His eyes felt numb as his pupils dilated.

"Be careful," he said as he wiped the heel of his hand across his right eye, "unless you want her to take your powers too."

A gunshot suddenly sounded from across the street. Stone looked to see that a window on the third floor of the target building was broken. A flash appeared from the window with another loud bang…

And Stone was instantly hit with a bullet to the throat. He collapsed onto the ground. It didn't take long for him to bleed out and die.

Lan grinned slightly when she saw the Contractor on the roof on the other side of the street collapse. She could see the other one on an adjacent roof. She placed a strip of gum into her mouth and began chewing it. She got the gum from the Contractor lying unconscious behind her.

Lan focused her mind and her eyes glowed red again. She jumped out of the window and was hovering in the air. She flew toward the remaining contractor, who had pulled out his pistol. Her target wasn't able to aim correctly, as Lan landed on him before he could even get a shot off.

"Damn," the Contractor said.

Lan calmly blew a bubble and popped it, paying the price for her new power. She then spit out the gum wad onto the rooftop.

She pinned down the Contractor beneath her and moved her face into his, glaring into his eyes.

"I've heard of you," Lan's helpless victim said, "you're the Supernova, aren't you?"

Lan was her codename given to her by her employers, and XO-389 was her Messier code. Supernova, however, was the name she was given to her by her enemies, as well as the governments who had heard of her. Her nickname originated from the intensity of her star when she used her power.

Given that Lan was still paying the price for her primary ability, she could not answer her enemy's question. Instead, she responded by using her main power, causing her star to flare again, along with the star of her victim's.

Once she had taken the power, she butted the ex-Contractor's face with her forehead, knocking him cold. She then whistled a short tune, paying the price for the new power that she took.

Her new powers also added to the price of her original. She wouldn't be able to speak for three hours. With every new power that she took, she had to remain silent for an additional hour.

_Not that talking will do me any good at this point._

Lan picked herself up. Her shoulder was throbbing from where the bullet struck her earlier, but she ignored the pain. She had felt worse pain in the past. She opened her left vest pocket and pulled out some new wire. She opened the launcher, removed the broken wire, and replaced it with the fresh one.

It wasn't long before she heard more approaching APCs. Lan jumped off of the building and onto a car. She broke the window and sat in the driver's seat. She didn't have the key, but she knew that she didn't need it.

Lan's eyes quickly shined red, and the familiar blue glow of synchrotron radiation surrounded her body. The car she sat in instantly roared to life. She mentally commanded the car to back out of its spot on the side of the road, and then ordered it to move forward quickly.

Once Lan spotted a pair of APCs driving toward her from the north, she stopped the car and turned off the engine, but kept the headlights on. She then whistled a short tune again, paying the price for the ability that she just used.

The APCs were quickly approaching. They were a hundred meters away and closing. Once they were fifty meters away, Lan opened the car door and quickly backed away form it. As she moved, she activated another power.

XO-389 flared brilliantly as the headlights of the small car that she had used focused their light into a powerful beam of energy. A wide pulse of superheated laser light shot from the car's headlights and incinerated both APCs as they came within a distance of twenty meters. Both flaming hulks of metal crashed into the car, pushing it several meters before coming to a stop.

Lan held her nose as the combined aromas of burning oil, diesel, and human flesh reached her face. Lan quickly ducked into a nearby alley and pulled the multi-headed whip from her belt and loosened her suit.

After a pair of self-inflicted lashes to her back, she closed the suit and tied the whips back to her belt. Her back was throbbing with more burning pain. She knew that she couldn't keep that up, as she could feel blood seeping down her back.

Another idea sprang forth when she heard another APC coming for her. She headed in the direction from where it was coming. Once she spotted it, she pulled out another strip of gum and put it in her mouth. Once the armored behemoth steered toward her, she activated her gravity ability.

The APC was lifted off of the ground, completely at Lan's mercy. She began walking toward the floating carrier, drawing her pistol as she did so. She saw the big tank's hatch open, a soldier trying to get out. The soldier spotted her and fired several rounds from a service pistol, each shot missing the veteran Contractor my several meters. Lan responded by calmly aiming her Berretta and firing one shot, nailing the panicking American right between the eyes. The soldier's body fell out of the hatch and landed on the ground with a thud.

Lan removed the magazine from her pistol and placed it in her pocket. She pulled out a fresh one and locked it into the gun. As she began walking again, she commanded the armored transport to lower slowly to the ground. Luckily, the soldiers inside were too nervous to take a peak out of the hatch after what happened to their buddy.

The instant that the APC softly touched the ground, Lan broke into a run and charged through the open hatch. The tank quickly rocked violently, and a cacophony of gunfire and screaming followed. Within seconds, the rocking ceased, and the atmosphere became silent.

Lan sat on the floor of the APC, surrounded by bodies. She calmly blew a bubble until it popped, then removed the gum from her mouth and placed it under one of the tank's seats.

Thinking on her feet, Lan quickly rummaged through the pockets of the dead American soldiers, searching for anything helpful. She picked out several wallets and pocketed any cash inside. She found some extra nine-millimeter bullets, which she quickly used to refill her spare magazines.

Once she grabbed everything she needed, Lan moved up to the driver's seat. She sat down and activated one of her powers. As her eyes glowed red, the APC hummed. She commanded it to charge north at full speed.

A monitor showed the blue star XO-398, flaring intensely, outshining the light of the stars nearest to it. The star's overwhelming glare was as bright as the moon was before it vanished behind the false sky.

_So that's why she's called Supernova,_ Samuels thought as he stared at the monitor, struggling to keep his temper in check.

He voiced an order through his radio. "I want all available units waiting at the north gate! Be ready to open fire as the target comes within range!"

XO-389 was one of the most infamous Contractors ever reported. Her actions during Heaven's war had made her infamous, until she disappeared along with Heaven's Gate. No one has seen her since then, but they knew she was not dead, as her star was still in the sky, except it was dimmer than it used to be. Her star had not shown any activity for years, and people soon forgot about her.

Now she has reappeared inside of Hell's gate, and she was still as deadly as ever. Samuels was not about to let such a dangerous Contractor escape on his watch.

"You will not get away," Samuels whispered as he watched the star on the monitor.

The edge of the wall was dead ahead. Lan couldn't believe her luck when she saw that she was heading toward a large circular opening, likely the entrance and exit to the gate.

Her confidence was slightly deflated when she noticed several more armored personnel carriers waiting by the entrance, along with dozens of armored soldiers. Luckily, she spotted an opportunity.

Lan got up from the drivers seat, commanding the vehicle to stay on course. She went to the side hatch and opened it. With carefully planed timing, she launched her arm wire to grab hold of a tall lamppost. As she passed it, she retracted the wire and was pulled from the still-moving vehicle.

As she climbed to the top of the lamppost, attempting to balance herself, the soldiers at the wall opened fire on the charging APC. The armor was punched through in seconds under a barrage of bullets.

Lan commanded the damaged vehicle to mow down a large number of soldiers, crushing them under large tires. The soldiers started to scatter, firing at the rogue piece of armored machinery. Lan knew that her puppet tank wouldn't last much longer so she commanded it to crash into one of the other APCs at high speed. Both armored carriers exploded, taking several soldiers with them.

Lan whistled another tune, and immediately took control of a car parked beneath her. As its engine came to life, the car's puppeteer leapt from her perch onto the hood, and directed it to accelerate forward. As the car drew near to the soldiers, Lan picked several of them off with several well-aimed shots from her Berretta. Her car shot right past the remainder of the soldiers and into the interior of the wall.

The second that Lan's vehicle entered the facility alarms sounded all over. As soon as they saw the rampaging sedan, multitudes of scientists, as well as janitors panicked and tried to run in different directions.

Once she was sure that no soldiers were around, Lan commanded the car to stop. She jumped from the hood, opened the passenger side door, and sat down. She commanded the car to accelerate again.

For nearly ten minutes, Lan directed her car to charge through the halls of the large facility that surrounded Hell's Gate. Along the way, several soldiers attempted to stop her. She ran most of them down with the car, and shot several others. Eventually, found a sign that directed people to the exit. Unfortunately, her car would not fit through the smaller hallway where the way out was.

As she got out of the car, whistled the tune and made another payment. As she ran down what appeared to be a security checkpoint, she took cover behind a counter as a pair of security guards began opening fire on her.

She checked her pistol and saw that she had two rounds left.

"Come out of there," one of them ordered.

Lan put the clip back into her pistol, and drew her knife from her left hip. As she got to her feet, she threw the knife at one guard, and quickly took the other down with one shot from her gun. Her knife landed in the guard's chest. She quickly walked up to him and used her last bullet to put him out of his misery. After finishing him off, Lan pulled her combat knife from the guard's chest, wiped it on his shirt, and placed it back into its sheath.

Lan reloaded the pistol as she ran for the exit. Several other security guards attempted to stop her, and failed miserably. After two minutes of fighting, Lan ran out of the wall's outer exit, which was another round opening large enough to allow access to several vehicles.

Even after she climbed the chain link fence that kept civilians from getting too close to the wall, Lan continued to run. She charged through the streets of Tokyo, catching the attention of some of the locals.

She didn't stop running until she was many blocks away, at which point she found an empty construction site. She found a secluded space within the unfinished building and collapsed from exhaustion.

She was breathing heavily, struggling to catch her breath. All she could think about was how lucky she was to get out of Hell's Gate.

_I made it! I can't believe that I made it!_

She waited for over half an hour for any soldiers that may have pursued her. Eventually, she began to relax. It did not take her long to drift into a much-needed sleep.


	3. An Omen in the Sky

**This chapter opens with Samuels having a meeting with his superiors regarding Supernova's escape. Meanwhile, Misaki Kirihara, along with the other members of the new syndicate meet to discuss the reappearance of XO-389.**

**This is a shorter chapter, focusing on the interests of other parties regarding Lan. **

**(Chapter begins)**

Captain Samuels was upset, which was putting it mildly.

At midnight, less than five hours ago, the infamous Contractor XO-389, also know as Supernova appeared inside of Hell's Gate, seemingly out of thin air. Despite the forces that Samuels sent to neutralize her, Supernova defeated them like they were nothing. America had lost over forty soldiers, as well as four of its best Contractor agents.

Now she was free, escaping on Samuels watch.

The frustrated captain walked though the halls of the PANDORA research facility, heading to the office of General Terrence O'Connell, the head of the American military presence in Tokyo. Samuels had no doubt that Colonel Anthony Winters, his CO, was there too.

Samuels had never actually met O'Connell, but he was not fond of his Commanding officer. Winters was a real hard-ass, and not very popular among his subordinates. Samuels had heard jokes and cracks about Winters among his men, often saying that the Colonel's personality suited his last name.

_Boy, there's no doubt about that._

Samuels knew that Winters would chew his ass off for losing one of the worlds deadliest Contractors.

Samuels arrived at the General's office. After a moment's hesitation, he calmly knocked on the door and announced his arrival. The door opened in response.

As Captain Samuels stepped in the door, he saw General O'Connell sitting at his desk, and Colonel Winters standing beside him. Samuels took note of the Colonel's expression.

_Yep. He's pissed._

Sitting in a chair in front of O'Connell's desk was the head of PANDORA's Astronomics division, Takashi Suzuki. He was a man of average height, wearing a white lab coat and glasses. Suzuki used to work for the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan before it was shut down.

_Classic nerd._

Sitting next to Suzuki was a man whom Samuels had never seen before. He was dressed in a light brown suit with a black tie. His short brown hair had grey areas, and his eyes were pitch black. He wore an expression that indicated that he was all business and no pleasure.

Samuels stepped up to the front of the desk and saluted. "Captain Ben Samuels reporting as ordered, Sir!"

"Captain Samuel's" General O'Connell said, "Thank you for coming. At ease."

Samuels relaxed.

Before we begin, I'd like you to meet our representative from MI-6.

The serious looking man in the suit stood and extended his hand to Samuels. Samuels shook it.

"You can call me Century," the British man said.

"Good to meet you," Samuels responded.

"I assume that you can guess why you're here," O'Connell asked.

_Here we go._

"Yes, sir."

"I'll get right to the point," O'Connell continued, "I'm here to tell you that you're being reassigned."

Samuel's eye twitched slightly.

"As of now, you will be put in charge of a mission to neutralize the Contractor XO-398."

Samuel's lifted his head in surprise. He noticed that Winters has squirmed a little bit. He was not keen on the idea.

"Um," Samuels began, "With all due respect sir, why me? I failed to capture her before."

"Yes," O'Connell continued, "but you are the only officer here who has had actual experience with XO-398, and therefore are the most logical choice to head the operation."

Samuels thought about that for a moment. The General did have a point about that. Samuels was also happy to hear that he was being given a chance for some payback against Supernova.

"Well, Captain?"

"Sir," Samuels said, "I accept the assignment."

"Good," O'Connell said, "Now, MI-6 is joining you on this mission, as Britain has had experience with the target during Heaven's war."

"We also have a bit of a score to settle with her," Century said.

"Was she that bad," Samuels asked.

"Just ask that gentleman over there."

Century was pointing in the direction of the door. Samuels looked to where he pointed and almost jumped when he saw two men standing next to the door of the office.

The tall man standing furthest to the right had long white hair and bright green eyes. He was dressed in a bright red trench coat and wearing a top hat. He had a very confident look on his face.

The shorter man was the one that Century was pointing to. He was thin, with light brown skin and short black hair. He was wearing a blindfold. His face appeared more stoic and serious than his taller companion's. He was wearing a light grey suit with a tie of the same color.

"Captain Samuel's," Century said, moving next to the two oddballs, "These are two of my agents who will accompany you on this mission. The tall one there is one of our best agents."

The white haired man took off his top hat and gave a bow. "Call me August 7."

"The serious one," Century continued, "Is May 3. He's had experience with Supernova."

"Really," Samuel's asked, "What kind of experience."

The Contractor called May 3 lifted up his blindfold. His eyes were empty sockets, with a long, horizontal scar running along them.

"Oh."

"Don't worry about his handicap," Century said, "May 3 is used to fighting blind. After all, it was his payment."

"Payment," Samuels asked, "So he's a contractor?"

"Yes," August 7 said, "As am I."

"My price," May 3 said, his voice deep, "was having my eyes closed while I used my ability. Now that I have no eyes left to close, my power is without a price."

"Well," Samuels said, "I look forward to seeing what you can do."

**(Changing Perspective)**

Misaki Kirihara parked her blue Porsche outside of the old observatory. After locking the door, she walked through the chain-link gate and up the path.

The sun was starting to rise.

As she walked up the path, she stopped to take another look at the incredibly bright blue star hanging over the horizon.

Misaki had no doubt that the meeting she was heading to was concerning that star. She turned back and resumed her short walk.

Upon reaching the main building, she found Oreille standing next to the entrance, along with Ariel and Bernice, her twin dolls. The contractor called Mao, who inhabited the body of a flying squirrel, was sitting on Oreille's left shoulder.

"Glad you could make it, Miss Kirihara," Oreille said.

"I'm guessing that that big star back there," Misaki said as she pointed her thumb back at the star behind her, "is the reason that I'm here?"

"The Blue Giant star," Ariel began.

"Returns to take the rest," Bernice finished.

"Indeed," a familiar voice said. Goro Kobayashi exited the observatory.

Several other members of the new syndicate appeared around the building. Some of them Misaki knew, having helped to recruit them herself. Some of them were contractors.

Mina Hazuki was also there, standing against the wall of the observatory, her black Bokken leaning against the wall next to her.

"I'm guessing," Oreille said, "that you don't know about the Contractor bonded to that star, Misaki?"

"I've seen it before," Misaki answered, "and I've wondered about it, but I haven't seen it for over seven years. I had assumed that whomever it belonged to died."

"That is incorrect," Kobayashi said, "The star has never fallen, it has simply gone dim, and hasn't shown any activity for a long time."

"The star is infamous among contractors," Mao said, "The Contractor who it belongs to has been nicknamed Supernova."

"I can see why," Misaki said, "So what do you know about the Contractor."

"XO-389," Kobayashi said, "We don't know her actual identity, but we know that she is a woman."

"She was a member of the old syndicate, like me," Mao said, "and she was also a member of Hei's team during Heaven's war."

This contractor definitely had Misaki's interest now. "What can you tell me about her?"

"Unfortunately," Mao replied, "I have never met her, and Hei has not said anything about her. I only know what I've heard."

"Her ability," Kobayashi continued, "is that she can steal the powers from other contractors."

"Are you serious," Misaki asked, amazed.

"The exploding star," Ariel began again.

"Envelops the others," Bernice finished.

"With every new power she takes," Oreille said as she handed Misaki a photograph, "Her star grows brighter."

The photo Misaki looked at was of the blue star, bright against a deep blue sky, high above a mountainous horizon. She could see the faint lights of other stars surrounding it.

"That picture was taken in South America during the war," Kobayashi said, "at midnight."

Misaki's eyes widened at that. At first, she thought that the star was flaring during the day. In actuality, the star was lighting up the sky.

"Her star is at its brightest," Oreille said, "when she uses her primary ability. When she uses other powers, her star flashes at different frequencies, depending on the power."

"We do not know the price for her main ability," Kobayashi continued, "but we think that she has to pay the prices of all the powers that she has taken."

"Sounds difficult," Misaki commented.

"As if one price isn't difficult enough," Mina said.

"The strange thing is," Kobayashi said, "is that she disappeared at the same time that Heaven's Gate did. She was probably inside the gate during the event."

"Her star has not shown any activity," Arrigo Donati, one of the Contractor members said, "Since the gate's disappearance. All of a sudden, she suddenly reappeared at midnight last night."

"Why," Misaki asked.

"We don't know," Kobayashi said, "but we have a source inside of PANDORA who told us that she reappeared inside of Hell's Gate."

"She fought her way out, taking out several American soldiers," Kenneth Boyle said, "She escaped into Tokyo."

"So what's our interest in her," Misaki asked.

"We believe that her reappearance," Kobayashi said, "has something to do with the events of three weeks ago."

"Izanagi and Izanami?"

"Yes," Kobayashi said, "And we want to talk to her, possibly recruit her."

"I see," Misaki said.

"We would like you, Mao, and Mina to look for her," Kobayashi said.

"The Americans are eager to finish her off," Boyle said, "Watch yourselves."

Mao flew off of Oreille's shoulder and onto Misaki's. Mina picked up her Bokken and walked over to Misaki.

"If possible," Kobayashi said, "Recruit her. If she won't come quietly, then try to capture her. It is important that we speak with her, one way or another.

"I understand," Mina said.

"So do I," Misaki said.

**(Chapter ends)**

**Lan will appear again in the next chapter. **


	4. An Old Enemy Blinded by Starlight-Part 1

**Chapter four opens with Lan waking up from her nap, snapping out of a dream from the past. Three hours have already passed and she is able to speak again.**

**Elsewhere, Samuels, along with a small squad and the British Contractors are searching for Lan with the help of a special doll. Misaki Mina, and Mao are also searching for her, with Ariel and Bernice trying to track her.**

**This chapter also features a short cameo with Kiko and Kurusawa.**

**(Chapter begins/ Dream Sequence)**

Lan's opponent was writhing in the grass, gripping his eyes, which were bleeding profusely. He screamed off curses of rage and agony. A leaf that was covered in blood hovered over the defeated Contractor.

Lan relaxed, and the red glow in her eyes faded, along with the blue aura surrounding her body. The bloody leaf, along with a multitude leaves which were hovering around the battlefield slowly drifted to the ground. Lan pulled a folded sheet of paper form her back pocket and unfolded it. She ripped the paper into many smaller pieces, and put them into her mouth.

With some effort, Lan was able to swallow them. As far as payments went, to her, that one wasn't half bad.

As Lan drew her pistol, someone tackled her from her right, dragging her to the ground. As she landed, she quickly flexed her body to force her attacker to flip over, switching places. Lan lay on her back, her foe beneath her, struggling to move. She brought her pistol around and angled it over her shoulder. The barrel of the gun connected with his forehead.

Without hesitation, Lan pulled the trigger. The enemy's struggling stopped instantly.

Before Lan could catch her breath, she sensed someone behind her. Instinctively, she jumped out of the way as a machete slashed above her head. She turned to find that the blade was hovering in thin air.

"Invisibility," she whispered.

She quickly took aim with her gun, but before she could pull the trigger, a large forked knife flew in from behind the invisible Contractor and planted itself into the back of his neck. The Contractor's power deactivated, revealing a tall, muscular man wearing no clothes. Lan came to the conclusion that running around in the buff was his price.

The naked Contractor fell on his face, dead. As Lan got to her feet, Hei leapt from the branches of a tree a few meters ahead.

"Nice throw Hei," Lan said, "Your skills have definitely gotten better."

Both Lan and Hei moved over to where the now-blinded Contractor was. His thrashing had lessened, but he was still holding his eyes, groaning in pain.

"Did you get it from him," Hei asked his partner.

"I was about to," Lan answered, "before that putz back there tackled me."

Hei drew another knife from his belt, preparing to put the eyeless Contractor out of his misery. Lan held her arm out to Hei, stopping him.

"Don't bother," Lan said, "He's no longer a threat, at least right now."

Hei almost argued, but decided against it. He lowered his knife, but kept it in his hand.

Lan knelt down and punched her defeated foe in the face, knocking him out. She searched his pockets until she found what she needed.

She held what appeared to be a large glass lens. While it did not look like much, Lan had recently witnessed its capabilities when she fought the Contractor who she took it from.

After inspecting it, she held out the lens to Hei.

"I think that you should hold on to this," she said, "It's probably best that a Contractor not touch it."

"Understood," Hei said as he took the lens from Lan.

With that, an abrasive racket snapped Lan out of her sleep.

**(Changing Scene)**

BEEP, BEEEEEP!

Lan snapped awake as an agitated driver several meters away honked his car horn at the man in front of him.

"Get a move on, pal!"

It wasn't long before both cars drove away. Lan quickly remembered what had happened the previous night. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and slowly got to her feet. As she yawned, she realized that she had her voice back.

"Good," she said, "Payment has been paid."

Lan walked out of the incomplete building and down the sidewalk.

**(Changing Character)**

Samuels was riding in the front passenger seat of a large white van. August 7 and May 3 rode in the back along with a Doll and four of his best soldiers.

The Doll was a member of MI-6 as well. He was a young teenager, probably thirteen or fourteen, with pale grey eyes and short brown hair. Like every Doll that Samuels had seen, this one had a very melancholy expression on his face, and spoke in an emotionless tone of voice. He was wearing what appeared to be a British school uniform.

The Doll's name was October.

"Remind me, August," Samuels said from the front of the van, "What is so special about this Doll?"

"October," August 7 said, "can see almost anywhere, because his medium is air. As such, his surveillance specter can fly freely."

"I see," Samuels said, "No target can go somewhere without air for long."

"Correct," August affirmed, "So unless Supernova has gone into space, or under the ocean, she cannot escape October's sight."

"I have found her," October said, "the Supernova is twenty kilometers northeast of here."

A grim smile spread across Samuels face. He would have XO-389's head within the hour. At first he was uncomfortable working with the Brits, but if they helped him kill the Supernova, he'd be their best friend.

"Target is moving slowly," October said monotonously, "heading north."

The van's occupants had no idea that October was being monitored.

**(Changing Character)**

Misaki was driving her blue Porsche down the streets of Tokyo, waiting for Ariel and Bernice to find the Supernova Contractor. Mina was riding shotgun while Mao was sitting on her shoulder.

After a couple of hours of riding in silence, Mina finally spoke up.

"You seem rather anxious to find this Contractor," she said to Misaki, "What's the deal?"

"Are you kidding," Mao said, "The Supernova is a legend among Contractors. I'd be nervous too if…"

"That's not what I meant," Mina interrupted, "It seems that our dear Misaki here is actually eager to meet her."

Misaki simply squinted her eyes slightly.

"Is it because she was your boyfriend's partner?"

"I told you," Misaki snapped, "It's nothing like that."

"We both know that it has to do with BK-201, whatever your reasons for wanting to find him."

Before Misaki could argue any further, her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and answered it.

It was Oreille, calling to tell them that Ariel and Bernice had XO-389's location.

Ariel and Bernice were unique, even for Dolls. Their medium was other Dolls, and the doll they were watching was a British Doll being used to track the Supernova.

"It seems that the Americans are out for blood after all," Misaki said as she put her phone back in her pocket.

"They've sent an assassin," Mao asked.

"According to Oreille," Misaki said, accelerating the car, "They've got some Contractors from MI-6 helping them. They've already got a fix on her location, and are en route to take her out."

"Then we know where she is as well," Mina asked.

"Yes," Misaki answered, "Let's just hope that we get there first."

**(Changing Character)**

Kiko Kayanuma was walking down the sidewalk with her boss, Gai Kurusawa. Kiko was wearing her favorite cat-ninja cosplay costume, while Kurusawa was wearing an elephant outfit.

"Oh," Kurusawa moaned, "Do I really have to go through with this?"

Both of them were on their way to an anime convention.

"If you didn't want to do this," Kiko said, "then you shouldn't have mad that bet, Morris!"

"My name's not Morris," Kurusawa snapped as he pulled off the elephant's head, taking a deep breath, "and I can hardly breath in this thing!"

"Don't be a baby, boss-man," Kiko said, "after all, a bet's a bet."

"Give me a break, Kiko! I don't even like anime! Couldn't you just make me pay you or something?"

"Sorry, Morris! It's too late for that. Just be happy I didn't make you dress up as a cat!"

Kurusawa groaned in dejection.

"Look at the bright side," Kiko said, "There are a lot of sexy cosplayer women at these conventions!"

Kurusawa's head suddenly perked up.

"Sexy? Really?"

"Oh yeah," Kiko affirmed. "In fact, there's one now!"

"Where?" Kurusawa turned to look behind him, where Kiko was pointing. He spotted her instantly.

"Hot dog!"

The woman he was ogling was dressed in a tight fitting outfit that looked like some kind of combat suit, complete with a gun and a knife, likely toys. Of course, it wasn't the outfit itself that caught his attention.

The cosplayer was tall, had a cute face, an ample chest, and a perfect curvy figure. Her long black hair was tied into a ponytail.

"I think," Kiko said, "that she's dressing up as Suzanna!"

"Suzanna?"

"She was the dark, evil sister who kidnapped Morris in episode twenty three, to have him all to herself!"

While Kurusawa never watched that bizarre show, he liked the sound of that.

"Then look out, Suzanna," he said as he charged across the street, "Because here comes Morris!"

"Wait a minute," Kiko shouted. "Oh, he's gonna get sued for this."

**(Switching Character)**

Lan was taken aback when a strange man in an elephant costume suddenly jumped out in front of her. She took a step back after getting a whiff of his unpleasant body odor.

"Hello there, ma'am," the man said, "I see that you like Rose Morris, too! Are you heading over to the convention as well?"

Lan was more than a little confused, although she quickly guessed that he was hitting on her.

"Excuse me," she asked.

"The anime convention," the elephant man said, "I see that you're dressed up for it."

Lan looked down at her combat suit. Her mind was so focused on recent events that she did not think about her suit being somewhat out of place in the middle of Tokyo. Apparently, she had been mistaken for a cosplayer.

"Uh," she said, "sure, why not?"

As the man started talking again, a flicker of motion from above caught Lan's eye. She looked up and spotted a surveillance specter hovering in the air, watching her.

_Uh oh._

Before the odd man in the elephant costume was finished talking, Lan turned around and took off running.

**(Switching Characters)**

Kiko walked over to Kurusawa after the woman cosplayer suddenly bolted.

_Wow! He must have said something incredibly stupid this time!_

Kurusawa looked dejected again.

"There, there, Morris," Kiko said in a patronizing tone, "I'm sure that you'll find someone eventually."

"Do you really think so?"

"Sure," Kiko responded as she held her nose, "After you've had a shower or something."

**(Switching Characters)**

"The target spotted me," October said, "She's running now, heading south."

"Step on it, Corporal," Samuels shouted to the driver.

**(Switching Characters)**

Lan ran fast. She took several glances behind her. The floating surveillance specter was chasing after her.

She ran for several blocks, looking for an unpopulated area. Whatever Doll was controlling that specter had air for its medium. She knew that she wouldn't be able to lose it.

_Looks like I'll just have to face them directly._

After running south, she eventually made a turn and ran west. Luckily, Lan grew up in Tokyo before she became a Contractor and knew the city pretty well. After running several blocks, headed into a park. The area did have a few people around, but it was the best she could do at the moment.

She stood in the middle of some trees. The surveillance specter hovered above her for several long minutes. She calmly waited for her pursuers to catch up with her.

Eventually, Lan heard rustling in the trees around her. She looked around, slowly drawing her gun.

On instinct, Lan got down to the ground as a swarm of butcher knives appeared out of nowhere, imbedding themselves into a nearby tree.

As Lan got to her feet, she heard a voice shouting from above.

"The bullet catch," the voice said, "There are many different ways to perform this trick. One way to do it is to have the gunman fire a gun with blanks, while the magician sneaks a bullet into his hand!"

Lan spotted the source of the voice. A strange man wearing a top hat and a red trench coat was standing in the branches of a tall tree.

"Come again," Lan asked casually.

"That is the price of my contract," the man said, "Revealing the secrets of magic tricks. A truly painful price to pay for a man of magic."

"Believe me, Mr. Flashy" Lan replied, "I've paid worse!"

"So have I," another voice said from behind her.

Lan's eyes widened with horror. She had heard that voice before.

She jumped up into the air as a long, bladed whip slashed the ground where she stood a moment ago. As she landed, she turned to face her would-be-assassin. Her suspicions were confirmed.

"You again," she growled.

The second Contractor's whip appeared to be infused with his right arm. With a flash of Synchrotron light, the razor sharp appendage retracted back and transformed into his right hand.

"Long time, no see," the British Contractor commented.

"Interesting choice of words there," Lan joked with a grin, "How have the eyes been?"

Lan's old enemy responded to her remark by activating his power again. Both of his arms transformed into sharp metal blades. As he broke into a charge, Lan aimed her pistol at him.

**(Switching Characters)**

Misaki and Mina ran through the park, and stopped dead in their tracks when they heard gunshots.

"Damn," Misaki said, drawing her pistol, "The fight's already started."

"I'll go on ahead," Mina said. She put on her mask and held her bokken at the ready. "Don't wait up."

"I think that I'll just sit this fight out," Mao said. The momonga jumped off of Mina's shoulder and onto Misaki's.

Without another word, Mina broke into a fast run towards the ensuing battle.

**(Chapter Ends)**

**Stay tuned. A big fight will occur in the next chapter.**


	5. An Old Enemy Blinded by Starlight-Part 2

**(Chapter Begins)**

Lan had to keep moving. Both of her opponents were relentless with their attacks, particularly the Contractor called May 3, whom she had fought before.

Lan fired three more rounds at May. The bullet aimed at his head was blocked by his arm, which had morphed into a rounded metallic shield. The other two bullets hit their marks, striking him in the lower abdomen. May staggered back, but he did not go down. The bullet holes in his stomach seemed to spit the two projectiles out as they regenerated.

Lan knew that that would not work, but she had to test him.

May 3's ability was to manipulated his body on the genetic level, which allowed him to rapidly heal his wounds, as well as shape-shift into just about anything. Strangely, this ability did not allow him to heal injuries inflicted to his head; otherwise he would have been able to grow his eyes back.

Lan knew that his weakness was his head, but he always kept it well protected. Killing him wouldn't be easy.

_It's too bad that I don't have another barrage of razor-sharp leaves at my disposal like last time._

An even bigger hindrance was May's partner, August 7, who was making it difficult to focus. Both of their abilities were extremely deadly, and it was all she could do to dodge their attacks.

As Lan performed a backflip to dodge a swipe from one of May's bladed arms, she took aim at August and fired the remainder of her clip into him. Her shots seemed to vanish as they reached their target. The bullets instantly shot back at Lan, two of them striking her body. Luckily, her tough suit prevented them from piercing her body, but she still had the wind knocked out of her.

She fell to her knee, at which point she felt a hand grasp her right ankle. Before she could react, she was lifted off of the ground easily. May had extended his arm, stretching it over four meters. He lengthened it another two meters, lifting Lan into the air, holding her upside down.

"The cut-and-restore rope trick," August 7 shouted, " There are three basic methods. Two of them involve sleight of hand methods that fool the audience, and the third one uses gimmicked ropes which can be easily be rejoined through the use of adhesives."

"Tell someone who cares," Lan shouted back as she pulled another magazine from her pocket and shoved it into her gun.

As May 3 brought his long arm down to slam her into the ground, Lan drew her knife and slashed at the appendage that held her. With another slash, May's arm was cut in two. As she fell to the ground, Lan activated her gravity ability, stopping her drop.

Lan dropped into the branch of a tall tree, landing on her feet. She quickly placed a stick of gum into her mouth and began chewing. As she leapt to another branch, a bladed whip severed the tree limb where she stood a second ago.

"DON'T RUN FROM ME," May shouted as he whipped his bladed arm furiously, slashing branches.

As Lan landed on the ground, she blew a bubble and popped it. She spit out the gum and replaced it with another strip, just in case she needed to fly again.

She quckly ducked behind another tree and held still. Fortunately, she was standing upwind from May, which prevented him from smelling her. If she could stay quiet, he wouldn't hear her.

_Maybe I can sneak up on him somehow._

Lan could hear May walking through the grass, looking for her. He was walking cautiously.

"What's the matter, Supernova," May asked, "Rusty after all this time?"

That last sentence caught Lan's attention.

_All this time?_

Now that she thought about it, May did look somewhat older than he did when she fought him last. She also found it strange that the wall around Hell's Gate was already near completion.

_Have I been gone a long time?_

**(Changing Character)**

It did not take Mina long to find her target. After she found the area where the battle started, all she had to do was follow the trail of damaged foliage.

She kept her distance from Supernova, as well as her opponents. One of the Contractors that Supernova was fighting was one that Mina had seen before. He was a British agent that fought the Black Reaper in Russia, a battle that Mina had witnessed.

Mina had never seen the other British agent, though she could see that he was dangerous. He also seemed to know Supernova, and not in a good way.

Mina couldn't help but admire XO-389's physique, athletic, yet voluptuous. She was strong, swift, and serious. Beneath her mask, Mina licked her lips as she watched Supernova move.

She would jump in to help if things looked dire, but Mina wanted to see what the infamous Supernova was capable of.

As she watched her target attack the shape-shifting contractor with hand-to-hand attacks, dodging his melee strikes, Mina couldn't help but notice her fighting style.

_Interesting. Her fighting techniques seem very similar to BK-201's. They did work together, so perhaps they had the same training._

**(Changing Character)**

Lan shot her wire around May's neck and dragged him close to her. She held the barrel of her gun to his forehead, but did not fire. May froze.

_Thought so. His head is his weakness._

"What did you mean," Lan asked, "when you said "after all this time?""

"What," a confused May asked.

"How long has it been since we last fought?"

May looked at her with some confusion, but quickly answered her question.

"Seven years."

Lan's eyes widened, but she did not falter.

"I see," she said. As she lowered the barrel of her gun, she launched her wire up into a nearby tree. She was pulled upward as August 7 lunged at her with a pair of large curved swords.

"Damn," May exclaimed.

Lan didn't dare fire at August again. Instead she kept her distance and observed his ability, looking for weaknesses.

May began to chase after her again, morphing his limbs as he ran. As Lan landed on another branch, May swiped at her with a long, thin tentacle. As it impacted her shoulder, Lan wrapped her left arm around it and pulled it taught.

She lifted her pistol and fired a round at May's head, but he had blocked it with his other arm, which had molded into a wide blade. As the blind Contractor pulled his extended arm back, Lan let go of it, which had caught May by surprise. He stumbled and fell, unable to regain his balance with his uneven limbs.

Lan instantly activated her gravity power and lifted into the air again. As she hovered directly above May, she took aim at his head.

Unexpectedly, his arms seemed to detach from his shoulders. He got up and leapt out of the way as she fired another shot at him.

Before Lan could reorient herself, a rock impacted with her stomach, causing her to lose her focus and fall. She launched her wire at a passing tree branch, and stopped falling. She was gripping her gut with her other forearm, the hand still gripping her pistol.

**(Changing Character)**

"YES," Samuels exclaimed as he watched the monitor in the back of the van, "We've got her!"

Samuels had sent his four human soldiers out with the Brits to back them up. They were carrying live-feed video cameras with them, allowing Samuels to watch the battle.

The Supernova was putting up one hell of a fight, but she was taking a beating. It seemed that May 3 held a deep grudge after all, which surprised Samuels. He'd never seen a contractor act with emotion before, not even anger.

Samuels couldn't really complain though, as it was helping May to beat her.

The human soldiers were scattered around the battlefield, feeding in images from four different angles.

Suddenly, one of the monitors was enveloped with static. Another one went out shortly afterward.

"What the hell?"

"There is another," October said from behind him, "Another Contractor."

"What?"

As another monitor flared into white noise, Samuels reached for his radio. He needed to warn Cooper and the Brits that there was an intruder, and fast.

Before he could even speak into the radio, the vans back doors opened. He turned to see the silhouette of a woman standing in the sun. Before he could draw his gun, the figure tossed something at his feet and quickly vanished.

It took Samuels a second to register what she had thrown in, as he needed to let his eyes adjust to the glare of the sun. He soon realized with horror that it was a flash-bang grenade. Before he could react, he was knocked cold by a combination of blinding light, deafening noise, and concussive force.

**(Changing Character)**

After the grenade went off, Misaki peaked into the van again. Three people were inside it. Two of them seemed to be soldiers, and the other one must have been the Doll that Ariel and Bernice had tracked.

Mao leapt from a nearby tree onto the roof of the van.

"Nice job," the momonga said.

"I am not proud of what I just did," Misaki said.

"You'll get used to it," Mao replied.

"Nice job on finding it," Misaki said.

While Mina kept her eye on the target, Mao flew around the park to search for possible enemy reinforcements. With the help of Ariel and Bernice via radio, Mao was able to locate the location of the enemy's Doll. After inspecting the van, he alerted Misaki.

"I just hope that Mina finishes up fast," Mao commented.

**(Changing Character)**

Lan released herself from the tree and fell to the ground, landing on her feet. She forced herself to ignore the pain in her stomach.

August 7 was yelling, revealing the secrets behind yet another magic trick, but Lan didn't stand still and listen to it. She ran a short distance and hid behind another tree to catch her breath.

_I won't last much longer against these two. I need to think of something._

She came to the conclusion that she had to kill May first. Stealing his ability was out of the question.

In order for her primary ability to work, Lan had to look directly into her target's eyes in order to steal his or her ability. Given that May no longer had any eyes, he was immune to her main powers.

_Whoops._

Lan waited to blow her bubble gum until she thought of something. She did not want to give away her position, as May would probably hear the pop.

She could hear footsteps approaching, and she stopped chewing her gum. Judging from the weight of the steps, it was probably May 3.

Lan closed her eyes and thought hard.

_Come on, Lan! This twerp is blind. Surely there's something…_

Her eyes snapped open as an idea hit her. She slowly reached into her front vest pocket and pulled out the laser sight. Her back ached as she thought of the price she would have to pay afterward, but it would be worth it.

She stood up and prepared to break into a run, holding her Berretta in one hand and the laser in another. She blew a bubble. She broke into a run immediately after it popped, as a sharp blade suddenly cut through the tree she stood behind.

As the tree crashed to the ground, Lan took advantage of the noise and ducked behind another tree. May had lost her again, thanks to the tree's loud crash.

Lan turned on the laser and set it down. She pulled the gum out of her mouth and stuck it to the laser. She picked up the laser and attached it to the barrel of her gun. She closed her eyes and listened for May's footsteps again.

_He's four meters away._

She peaked around the tree's trunk. When she spotted him, she took two loud steps from behind her hiding spot.

May immediately turned to face her and lifted his arms. As Lan took aim with her pistol, her adversary's right arm transformed into a metallic shield, which he lifted up to his face. A green laser point reflected off of his shield's metal surface.

She fired two rounds into the shield. Immediately after the second round impacted, she activated her ability, causing her eyes to glow red once again.

A superheated pulse of light shot from the tiny laser and tore clean through May's shield. As he dropped his arm, Lan saw a large cauterized hole in the middle of his face. He collapsed dead almost instantly.

Up in the morning sky, a bright star fell.

**(Changing Character)**

Mina was impressed by the Supernova's resourcefulness.

"Clever," she said to herself, "She used her enemy's blindness to her advantage by using laser light, something that can only be sensed through sight."

Mina watched as her target pulled a multi-tailed whip off of her belt. She unzipped the back of her suit, knelt down, and hit her own back with a solid lash, wincing in pain as she did so.

"Two abilities," Mina said to herself again, "along with two prices. The reports were true."

**(Changing Characters)**

As Lan zipped her suit back up, she heard a branch snap right behind her. She summersaulted as August's sword swung over her head. As she got back on her feet, she spun around, swinging her whip as she did so.

The whip knocked August's sword out of his hand. The white haired Contractor took a step back as Lan swung it at him again.

August reached into his trench coat. His eyes flashed red as he pulled a grenade launcher from it.

"Aw, Shit," Lan yelled as she moved to duck out of the way. August fired a grenade from the launcher.

Lan shot her wire and was lifted into another tree. A thick cloud of smoke rapidly expanded from August's grenade.

Lan already had an idea on how to deal with this one, but she needed to wait for the right moment.

"The Hummer Card trick," August shouted, "A card cannot actually float. The magician tapes invisible string to the back of his or her ear, and waxes the card to it."

_That would be it._

Lan listened closely for August's footsteps. Since he was blanketed by black smoke, she could not see him.

"I must say," the confident MI-6 agent said, "that was a clever trick you used on May back there!"

_Keep talking pal. You're only making this easier for me._

"But we both know that there is no way out of this one," August continued, "I have the ability to perform real magic. There is no way that you can get close to me to take my power away."

_I don't need to get close you idiot._

"Why don't you surrender? MI-6 is always in need of good agents, and given your capabilities, I have no doubt that we could find a place for you."

With that last sentence, Lan was able to pinpoint his location, luckily as the smoke was clearing up. She leapt from her tree branch, twirling her body in midair. She landed behind August, facing him.

As he turned to face her, Lan stared directly into his eyes. Before he could activate his ability, she activated hers first. August 7's smile vanished as he felt something invading his being.

**(Changing Character)**

Mina was puzzled when she saw August 7 freeze, his look of confidence gone. Synchrotron radiation surrounded both him and the Supernova. His expression was one of sheer terror.

A flash of light directed Mina's attention to the sky. A star was flaring brightly, outshining the blue light of day. The star above was not XO-389, but rather the one that August was bound to. XO-389 would not appear in the sky until nightfall.

For several seconds, August's star glowed intensely. After one final flash, his star quickly vanished.

**(Changing Character)**

"It's gone," August 7 said with panic in his voice, "It's really gone!"

Lan slowly began to walk toward him, not saying a word.

_Now I'm up to four hours._

Lan always had to be careful with taking powers, as she might not be willing or able to pay their prices. She had to wait to take August's ability until he had paid the price for it, because his payment involved speech. That price would have been difficult to pay, since Lan would not be able to speak for four hours.

Lan walked calmly up to the shocked ex-Contractor. As he looked up to face her, she lifted her hand, and struck the back of his neck with a solid 'Whack!'

Now that her opponents were beaten, Lan relaxed and thought more about her predicament.

_Seven years? Where the hell have I been all that time?_

Lan realized that she was still holding her whip. She tied it back to her belt strap and drew her pistol. She pulled the laser sight from the barrel, and removed the gum wad, tossing it aside. She turned the laser off and put it back into her vest pocket.

She removed her gun's magazine and refilled it with the extra bullets she took off of the American soldiers in Hell's Gate. After reinserting the clip, she holstered her Berretta.

Lan heard a soft rustling behind her. She slowly turned around.

She was standing face-to-face with a woman dressed in a black business suit. She was wearing a solid black mask that covered everything from the nose down. Lan could tell by the look in her eyes that she was another contractor.

Lan didn't know what the newcomer's ability was, but she figured that it probably had something to do with the bokken she was holding.

As she looked into the masked woman's eyes, Lan felt a sense of eagerness, a desire to test this Contractor's combat prowess. She could see that her new opponent had the same urge.

_This is going to be interesting._

**(Chapter Ends)**

**Another fight will occur in the next chapter, but it won't be as long as this one, nor will it take up the whole chapter.**


	6. A Test of Strength

**This chapter opens with a quick fight between Lan and Mina, although this conflict is not the main point of the chapter. **

**This chapter is one of the shortest ones, and it was also one of the more difficult ones to write.**

**(Chapter Opens)**

Mina knew that both she and XO-389 were thinking the same thing. They wanted to fight each other. Mina saw a strong fighter before her, and her opponent saw the same thing.

Mina decided to make the first move. She charged at the supernova as she activated her contract. The blade of her bokken ignited with bright white energy.

Supernova ducked as Mina slashed at her with her energized blade. She countered with a punch, but Mina dodged it with a black-flip.

Mina pulled her sword back behind her, readying another strike. Her adversary pulled a combat knife from her left hip. Both women circled each other for several seconds.

Mina could tell from watching the last fight that Supernova had to look in her opponent's eyes in order to steal their powers. Mina was careful not to look into her deep blue eyes for more that a second at a time.

"Come on, Blue," she said to Supernova, "Show me what you can do!"

**Author's note: From here on out, whenever reading from Mina's point of view, Lan will be called "Blue."**

Blue responded by firing her wire at Mina, who reflexively leapt to her left. The wire anchored at a tree and pulled Blue along. As her feet connected with the trunk, she took aim at Mina and fired three shots.

She was able to dodge the bullets as she ran. She picked up some rocks, and threw them at Blue. The rocks energized as they flew.

The Supernova flexed her body up the tree, dodging the searing rocks, which pierced the tree's trunk. As the Blue contractor aimed her pistol again, Mina fired her own anchored wire at a high tree trunk. She was yanked upward as the pistol fired the rest of its bullets.

**(Changing Characters)**

Lan jumped up to the branches of a tree and quickly reloaded her gun.

_Impressive! I like her already!_

Lan was an expert in marksmanship, and she rarely missed a shot. She couldn't help but be impressed when this new Contractor dodged every one of her shots.

_That's a neat ability too. I wonder what she pays for it._

**(Changing Characters)**

Mina peeked through the leaves and spotted Blue in another tree, doing the same thing. She broke a small branch and threw it, energizing it as it went. The Supernova leapt down to the ground in response and ran towards her.

Mina jumped down as well, throwing more energized twigs as she fell. Her superheated projectiles threw off Blue's aim, causing her to deviate in her running path. Mina immediately charged at her, sword at the ready.

What followed was frenzy. As Mina swung her sword, Blue dodged and pulled out her knife again.

Both fighters remained close to one another, fighting with their melee weapons. Blue was careful not to strike Mina's hot blade with her knife, dodging it instead. Both women were agile, flexible, and fast, striking and dodging each other's attacks.

The fray lasted for several minutes, until Mina finally got a lucky strike. She delivered a solid kick into the Supernova's stomach, knocking her onto her back. Mina immediately followed up with another attack.

_I'm surprised that she was knocked down so easily._

She realized her mistake right as she was making it. As she readied herself to stab her sword down, Blue pulled out the laser sight she pulled out earlier. As Mina stabbed down, her target shifted her head, dodging the blade by a mere inch.

Blue quickly aimed the laser at Mina's glowing bokken and activated one of her "confiscated" contracts. As her eyes glowed red, a pulse of hot energy destroyed Mina's blade, throwing her off balance.

Blue immediately got to her feet and landed a kick of her own to Mina's stomach. As Mina staggered back, the blue-eyed contractor shot out her wire.

Mina's arms were tied to her body, though she maintained her footing. Before she could respond, Blue charged her body into her tied up opponent, slamming her against a tree. The impact knocked the breath out of Mina.

Blue grasped Mina's head and held it up to her own face. Mina was staring into Blue's deep blue eyes.

Before Mina could slam her eyelids shut, Blue's blue eyes shined bright red, at which point it was too late. Mina could not close her lids, no matter how hard she tried.

"Dammit," she groaned.

**(Changing Character)**

Lan already had the new Contractor pinned in more ways than one.

Before she took any enemy's abilities, she carefully looked over them. By looking into her foes eyes, she could see every detail about his or her power, including the price they paid for it.

_Kissing men, huh? That I can do._

As Lan began to sap the new ability, her opponent's eyes glowed red and widened with horror.

"Stop right there," a woman's voice shouted behind her.

In response, Lan aborted her main ability, leaving the masked contractor's energizing ability within her. She slowly turned her head to see who was behind her.

**(Changing Character)**

As Blue released her grip on her mind, Mina slammed her eyes shut, gasping.

_Damn. That was too close!_

"Let go of my partner," a familiar voice shouted.

Mina lifted her head to see Blue looking back at Misaki, who was pointing her pistol at her.

"Look," Misaki continued, "I'm sorry if my associate harmed you in any way, but we just really want to talk to you."

**(Changing Character)**

Lan looked into the eyes of the new arrival. She could tell that she was no contractor. She also saw that she was being honest.

Lan turned to face the masked Contractor, who slammed her eyes shut. She loosened her wire and released her. She took several quick steps back from the tree and stood apart from her and her partner.

"My name is Misaki Kirihara," the human said, "and she is Mina Hazuki."

Lan looked to Mina, who was just getting to her feet. She looked back to Misaki and noticed that she had what appeared to be a flying squirrel on her right shoulder. When she looked directly at it, the squirrel flinched.

**(Changing Characters)**

"Can you understand us," Misaki asked the blue-eyed Contractor.

Supernova looked back and forth between Misaki and Mina, seeming to decide her next action.

"What now," Mao whispered into Misaki's ear.

"Just wait and see."

XO-389 held up her finger, signaling for Misaki to stay calm. She pulled out a multi-tailed whip from her belt and unzipped the back of her suit.

"She's making a payment," Mina said to Misaki.

Supernova whacked herself once with the whip, cringing as she did so. Misaki was surprised that she was not yelping after that hit. She should have at least yelped.

The Contractor in blue zipped her suit back up and tied the whips to her belt. Judging from her deliberate movements and expression, the whips had hurt.

She then signaled something to Misaki. She was asking something to write with.

Misaki reached into her back pocket and pulled out a small notepad and a pen. She and Supernova slowly walked toward one another. Misaki calmly handed the pad and pen to her.

She scribbled something, and then tore the paper from the pad and handed it to Misaki.

"Name's Lan," Misaki read aloud, "Cannot use voice for several hours, as it is my remuneration. I am willing to talk, but not here, and not now."

"So that's her payment," Mao noted.

Lan's eyes widened when she saw that Mao was talking.

"He's a contractor," Misaki reassured.

Misaki turned to Mina, but saw that she was not where she was. She looked around and spotted her next to one of the British agents, the taller one. She lifted his head and gave him a long kiss on the lips.

Apparently, the agent was out cold. Eventually, Mina broke away from the kiss and wiped her mouth with disgust.

Misaki turned back to Lan. "Will you come with us?"

Lan thought about it for a moment and nodded.

"Lets go then," Misaki said, "my car is just outside of the park."

**(Changing Characters)**

Lan perked up her ears when she heard the sound of a car approaching. She held up her hand to Misaki and Mina.

She was able to determine where it was coming from, and it was quickly approaching.

She motioned for her new friends to move when she saw the front of a van coming through the trees.

**(Changing Characters)**

Samuels was more than a little ticked off.

After waking up to find that his eyes in the park were gone, he got onto the drivers seat of the van and put the pedal to the metal.

As he charged through the park, he eventually found his target, along with two other women. He didn't care about them though, as he had his eyes on only one woman at the moment.

He floored the gas and accelerated the van towards XO-389.

**(Changing Characters)**

Lan activated another of her powers.

The white van immediately halted an inch from its intended target. The sudden deceleration caused the driver's head to smash into the stearing wheel. The American soldier was dazed for a second, but regained his sense of awareness.

He was pressing the gas pedal as hard as he could, but to no avail, as the van was completely under Lan's control. After realizing that his plan was foiled, he drew a pistol and pointed it to the windshield.

By then, however, Lan had already drawn her own pistol and was aiming at the soldier. In a split second, she could see the look in the driver's eyes, one of anger with the desire for revenge.

In circumstances like this one, Lan would normally wound the driver with a shot to the shoulder, and then would have opened his door and knocked him out with a punch. After fighting May 3, however, she did not want to take any chances.

With a pull of the trigger, Lan shot the American dead, shattering the windshield of the van.

"Close one," Mao said.

Lan moved to the back of the van and spotted two other people in the back. Both were unconscious. The young boy in a school uniform caught her interest.

_That must be the Doll that was tracking me._

Since the Doll was out cold, she didn't bother finishing him off. She would have a good head start by the time he woke up.

"Come on," Misaki shouted, "Lets get going."

Lan whistled a quick tune in remuneration for her ability, and quickly followed her new associates.

**(Changing Characters.)**

As soon as they reached her car, Misaki got into the drivers seat and started it up. Mina got in the passenger's seat while Lan got in the back. Misaki sped away from the park as fast as she could.

After they had driven a few blocks from the park, Lan carefully wrote another note and handed it to Mina.

"No hard feelings," Mina read, "Sorry about almost taking your power."

Mina looked to Lan. After a moment, Mina spoke up.

"No hard feelings," she affirmed.

"How did that fight get started between you," Mao asked.

"I don't know," Mina answered, "I guess that we just wanted to test each other."

"What an odd motivation," Mao replied, "for a Contractor."

"It is," Mina said, "Isn't it?"

Lan handed Mina another note.

"Who are you people," she read again, "and where are we going?"

"We're a small faction," Misaki answered, "People just call us the Syndicate."

Lan handed another note to Mina, who read it out loud again.

"I worked for the Syndicate. They are not small."

"That was the old Syndicate," Mao said to Lan, "I used to work for them too. They've been recently dissolved."

"How about we save the explanations for when we get to our destination," Misaki suggested, "it's one of our hideouts not far away."

Lan handed Mina another note.

"Fine by me. I would also like to wait until I'm finished making my payment."

"That will be no problem," Misaki replied.

**(Chapter Ends)**

**In the next chapter, Lan will meet with the members of the new Syndicate. You will also learn a bit more about Lan's relationship with Hei and the rest of the team during Heaven's War.**

**Stay tuned.**


	7. A Contractor Back on the Job

**This chapter will be the last chapter of this particular story, but don't worry. I plan to write some more stories about Supernova soon.**

**(Chapter Begins)**

"So close," General O'Connell grumbled, "We almost had her."

General O'Connell, Colonel Winters, and Century were in PANDORA'S morgue, overlooking the bodies of their most recent losses. October was sitting in a chair with an icepack on his head. Despite the concussion he received, the Doll's expression was no different than it had been earlier that morning.

"With all do respect, General," Winters said, "I told you that Samuels was too much of a hothead. He never did take losing well."

"So you've mentioned, Colonel," O'Connell replied, "but from what I saw on the video recordings, they almost eliminated the target. Perhaps they would have succeeded if that other faction hadn't gotten in the way."

"Anything yet, October," Century asked.

It had been over five hours since the mission failed, and only one hour since October regained consciousness.

"Nothing yet," the British agent replied, "They could be anywhere in the city by now, or even outside of it."

"So what happens to August," Colonel Winters asked Century, "now that he is no longer a Contractor?"

"August 7 has always been one of our best agents," Century replied, "We'll find something for him to do. I wouldn't want to waste his other talents."

"So what do we do now," Winters asked, "About Supernova?"

"October," Century said, "you can give it a rest. Let your head heal a bit."

October gave a faint "hmm," signifying acknowledgement.

"We can't spare resources to look for her right now," O'Connell said, "If we don't know where to look. We have other things on our agenda that also need our attention. We'll just have to wait until she turns up again."

"Understood," Winters said.

"October and I," Century said, "must be getting back to England."

"I understand," O'Connell replied. He held his hand out and Century shook it. "Thank you for your assistance, Century. I won't forget it."

"Don't worry," Century replied, "We'll keep our eyes open for Supernova. Knowing her, she won't stay hidden for long."

With that, Century and October walked out of the morgue door.

**(Changing Characters)**

Lan, Mina, Mao, and Misaki arrived had arrived at a building that the new Syndicate used as their headquarters in Tokyo. Lan was soon introduced to Oreille and Goro Kobayashi.

Lan had time to kill before her payment was complete. She was allowed to tend to any wounds she sustained, after which she took a shower. Given the state of her suit, her hosts provided her with some new clothes.

When Lan walked out of the bathroom, she was wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of black tennis shoes with socks. She also wore her hair down. Her new attire caught Mina's eye.

Lan decided to take a short nap until her payment was done. During that time, Mina reported on the Supernova's capabilities. Everyone was impressed with what they were told.

After two hours of sleep, Lan woke up and entered the meeting room where everyone was waiting. Several other members had arrived while Lan was napping.

"Okay," she yawned, "Sorry about the wait, but I'm done with my remuneration."

Lan noticed that several of the other Syndicate members were on their guard around her. After looking into their eyes, she could tell that the nervous ones were Contractors.

"It can't be helped," Oreille said.

"So you're Supernova," Mao asked.

Lan looked down at the Contractor/momonga. "That's what they call me. So what's your story?"

"Short version," Mao answered, "I'm a contractor with body swapping abilities who lost his original body, and am now trapped inside a momonga."

"Bummer," Lan commented.

"What about you," Mina asked, "Where have you been? You know, it's been over seven years since your star showed any activity?"

Lan was still struggling with the fact that she's been gone for so long.

"I wish I knew," she answered, "The last thing I remember was being in South America. I was inside Heaven's Gate, looking for some of my team members. When I finally found them, a bright light suddenly erupted from them. Well, more accurately, the light came from a lens thing."

"A meteor shard," Misaki said.

"Is that what it's called," Lan asked, "Anyway, I remember the light enveloping me, and then…"

"Then what," Kobayashi asked.

"Well…then I woke up on my back inside of Hell's Gate. That was just last night."

"So you were at the South American Gate," Kobayashi asked, "at the time of its disappearance?"

Lan's eyes grew wide. "Disappearance? You mean it's gone?"

"It is," Misaki said as she sat down at a computer. She typed in a few commands and came up with a map of South America. "Along with a large piece of South America."

Lan moved to Misaki's computer and looked at the image. Her eyes were wide with horror. "My god. What the hell happened?"

"It's as much a mystery to anyone else," one of the other Syndicate members said, "Though we know that two Contractor's were responsible."

"Yes," Misaki said, "UB-001."

"Amber," Lan said.

"And BK-201, the Black Reaper."

"What," Lan asked in confusion, "BK-201 isn't the Black Reaper. They are two different people."

"How so," Mina asked.

"BK-201 is a young girl," Lan explained, "Her codename given to her by the Syndicate…the old Syndicate, was Bai. The Black Reaper was her older brother; codename: Hei."

"So Doctor Schroeder was right," Misaki whispered.

"Tell me," Mao asked, "what was this…Bai's ability?"

"Bai," Lan answered, "could control electricity."

"Interesting," Mao replied, "Because I've worked with Hei. His ability is the same as Bai's."

"You're telling me that Hei has Bai's power? How did that happen?"

"I'm not sure," Mao answered, "He didn't tell me that."

"So you were a member of BK-201's team in Heaven's War," Kobayashi asked.

"Yes," Lan answered. "I was the team's leader."

"I've fought the Black Reaper several times," Mina said, "I noticed that you two have the same fighting style. Did you two have the same teacher?"

"No," Lan said, "I'm the one who taught him."

The room went silent for a moment. One of the other syndicate members let out a low whistle.

"I see," Mina said in a low tone of voice.

"So," Lan said, "Would someone like to fill me in on the last seven years?"

**(Changing Character)**

After eating a dinner that could feed a small village, Hei calmly washed the dishes.

The past three weeks have been slow, quiet, and lonely. Suou and July were gone. He did not know where Mao was, although he had heard that he had joined a new faction called the Syndicate.

_And Yin…_

Even though Hei ended Yin's life, something had appeared inside of Hell's Gate after she met Shion Pavlichenko in her Izunami state. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that something would happen sooner or later, and he would be waiting for it.

**Author's note: Sorry to make it to where Yin died at the end of Gemini of the Meteor, but let's face it, it didn't exactly look promising for her. I hope that this isn't too disappointing.**

Hei had remained in Tokyo, keeping an eye on things, listening for information. So far, whatever had appeared inside of the gate has not left it, nor has it done anything. According to his sources, the CIA had sent teams of soldiers and scientists into the gate to investigate. Apparently, the teams sent in were killed by whatever was in there.

Hei walked onto the roof of his safe house after washing the dishes. The sun had set not long ago, and he liked to watch the stars every night.

Hei spent roughly half an hour looking at the stars. Since he did not have a telescope with him, he watched them through binoculars. With each star he looked at, he wondered about the Contractor who was connected to it. Every so often, he looked at his own star, BK-201, the only star he really new anything about. It was also the star of his sister, before she fused with him during the South American gate disappearance.

Sometimes, Hei liked to travel outside of the city and look at the stars from the mountains. Without light pollution, they were much brighter and more numerous. For now though, he just watched them from his safe house.

Eventually, a bright flicker of light appeared in his peripheral vision. The instant he turned to face it, his eyes widened with surprise.

"It can't be," Hei whispered. He lifted his binoculars to the bright blue star in the sky.

Hei had seen that star many times in the past. There was no mistaking its glow. Even its position in the sky was the same. It was XO-389.

"Lan," Hei whispered again.

Hei had looked at Lan's star several times since the disappearance of Heaven's Gate. Between then and now, XO-389 was barely visible against the night sky, and completely undetectable with the naked eye when viewed from inside city limits. For over seven years, what was once the brightest star in the sky had become the dimmest.

Now it was active again, although it wasn't a bright as it was the last time he saw it. At that time, Lan had already taken over fourteen abilities from enemy contractors.

_Had she lost those powers somehow?_

Hei couldn't be sure, but she had clearly gained some new abilities. Judging from her star's brightness, Hei guessed that she had taken three or four.

In recent years, Hei's old teammates had been reappearing one-by-one. Carmine was the first, followed by Amber. Now his old combat teacher and mentor was back, and, knowing her, still in the fight.

He would definitely be keeping an eye on Lan's star, as well as gathering any information on her whereabouts. Even though she was a Contractor, Hei had always viewed her as his mentor.

**(Changing Characters)**

**(Two Days Later)**

After the new Syndicate had told her every important detail of the past seven years, they had offered Lan a job within their fold. She accepted their offer, as she needed a job, and she couldn't think of any reason to refuse.

Her new employers had been able to find a safe place in Tokyo for her to live.

Two days after meeting them, Lan arrived at the Syndicate's headquarters once again. Upon entering the building, Kobayashi handed her some new clothes to wear while on the job. She went into the bathroom to change her clothes.

As Lan removed her casual wear, she heard someone enter the bathroom. Upon looking in the mirror above one of the sinks, she saw that it was Mina.

"If you're here to make another pass," Lan said, "I'm still not interested."

As Lan pulled off her T-shirt, Mina observed Lan's body. Her torso was covered with scars of varying size and shape.

"It looks like South America," Mina commented, "Was unkind."

"Correct," Lan said, "Though not all of these are battle scars."

"No?"

"See these," Lan asked as she pointed to a series of burn marks on her forearm.

"They look like cigarette burns."

"Yep. That was a price for one of the powers I had stolen."

"What about that," Mina asked, pointing to the right side of Lan's lower abdomen. A trio of horizontal scars reached around her side and halfway across her stomach. They looked like clawmarks.

"Heaven's Gate," Lan said, "It was located in the middle of a jungle. It affected the local wildlife in a profound way."

After showing off a few more scars, Lan eventually got into her new clothes. She wore a white button-up shirt and black pants, as well as a pair of knee-high black leather boots. She also had a deep blue trench coat, which would be helpful with concealing her pistol.

Kobayashi was waiting for her when she walked out of the bathroom. He handed her an ID card.

"What's this," Lan asked.

"Your new identity."

"Aoi Noguchi," she read aloud, "Cute."

**Author's Note: Aoi is Japanese for blue. **

Kobayashi led her to a table with a box sitting on it.

"We also have some of the things that you requested," he said.

Lan opened the box and pulled out a new Berretta model 92. There were two key differences between her new pistol and her old one.

First, the new pistol had a fifteen round magazine capacity, unlike her previous one, which only held twelve. Second, the new gun had a built-in laser sight below the barrel.

Lan held the pistol and aimed it around the room. She released the magazine, and slammed it back in.

"Feels good," Lan said. She pulled out the gun's holster and attached it to her belt. After loading the gun, she placed it the holster.

Lan picked out a new combat dagger from the box. It was an inch longer than her other one. She put it in its sheath and secured it to the left side of her belt.

Kobayashi pulled her blue combat suit out of the box and handed it to her. It was folded up.

"We repaired the damage to you're suit," he said, "In my opinion though, I don't think you'll need it anymore."

"I like it," Lan said, "It's served me well. Besides, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

"A fair point," Kobayashi agreed. He then picked a blue satchel from under the table.

Lan opened the empty satchel and put her suit into it.

She reached into the box, emptying its contents and placing them on the table. She looked over them carefully.

"Two packs of gum," she said, "my laser pointer, a smaller set of whips, a flashlight, and…"

She picked up a book and read the title. "Magic Trick's Revealed."

"That's quite a variety," Kobayashi commented.

"I'll likely be carrying more," Lan said, "assuming I gain more abilities."

Lan calmly placed the items into her satchel.

"Do you have everything you need there," Kobayashi asked.

"That's everything," Lan answered.

"Good, because we have a job that needs doing."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Someone's been targeting some of our members, one-by-one. So far, they've only targeted our Contractor members, and we believe that they've recently arrived in Tokyo."

"You want me to find them, do you?"

"Can you do it?"

"Happy to," Lan said with a smile, "I'm eager to get back to work."

**(Chapter Ends)**

**I'm still trying to think of a way for Lan and Hei to meet again. Don't worry, I'll write some more stories soon. I hope that you enjoyed it.**


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